Pakistan’s prime minister Thursday told Washington’s visiting top security adviser that the United States must halt drone attacks on its soil, after they killed dozens of people in the northwest.

James Jones held talks with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as part of a short regional tour that has already taken in neighbouring Afghanistan to assess the United States’ new strategy in the region.

The Barack Obama administration has put Pakistan at the heart of a strategy to tackle Al-Qaeda and other extremists who Washington says are huddled along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border plotting attacks on Western targets.

Gilani “called for stopping the drone attacks in order to ensure success of Pakistan?s strategy for isolating the militants from the tribes,” a statement issued from his office said.